Debbie Lestitian, the PWSA board chair as well as the city’s chief of administration and director of human resources, will resign from both municipal service and the board to take on the new role of Chief Corporate Counsel and Chief of Administration, according to a press release.

A messy round of lawsuits between the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority and the private water company Veolia ended in a settlement the authority announced Thursday afternoon, leaving some water advocates aggrieved.

In the settlement, PWSA will avoid paying $5 million in fees to Veolia from the contract the authority and corporation first signed in July 2012, then extended until December 2015.

The amount of lead in Pittsburgh’s water rose by six parts per billion according to a Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority report Monday, confirming analysis by both the County Controller’s office and a Pittsburgh media outlet.

The latest round of Department of Environmental Protection mandated testing showed the city’s water at 21 ppb. The federal action level for lead, triggering pipe replacements and other remedial actions, is 15 ppb.

After a tough year of water flush and boil advisories and partial lead-line replacement controversies, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto’s Blue Ribbon Panel suggests that the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority needs to completely restructure its management system, instead of being privatized.

According to its final report released last week, the panel says the reorganization should be completed by March 31 through a contract between the city and PWSA.

After a year of responding to boil advisories, bursting pipes and high lead levels, with infrastructure spending, raised rates, and state oversight, Tassi Bisers, of the Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network, wants the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority to leave 2017 proud of their work.

“I want you to start tooting your own horn about your own courage,” Bisers said to the chuckling PWSA board at their final meeting of the year Friday morning.

The meeting capped a busy year for the authority as it addressed numerous systemic issues, most branching from a lack of past capital investment. The authority also created programs to stop water shutoffs for low income customers and a payment assistance program for those struggling to pay their water bill.